Wacht am Rhein, Die

A rousing patriotic German hymn by Carl Wilhelm, 1840, which called on the Germans to keep "watch on the Rhine."

It became famous during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Germans not only maintained their watch on the Rhine but actually crossed the river in Alsace and appropriated the city of Strasbourg. It was renamed Strassburg, until its recovery by France after World War I.